Tempest Case

The Tempest brings to its audience a world of wonder, imagination and magic. Shakespeare challenges himself with new social matters of his time. New places and races, along with the interactions between the colonist and the colonized help create the core of The Tempest; revealing the struggle for political power. Topics such as colonization are addressed and matters such as government and power rightfully follow. Shakespeare's final play can be interpreted several ways, but the most prevailing approach to The Tempest is the influence of colonialism. In the early 19th century, English critic William Hazlitt was the first to illustrate that because Prospero had seized Caliban from his position of rule on the island, Prospero was the role of an agent of imperialism.1 Since Hazlitt's critic in 1818, Caliban's character is thus identified as the European symbol of the colonized. It is also important to familiarize oneself with key historical events which may have influenced Shakespeare's imagination.

We must point out events in European colonization which may have helped influence Shakespeare's imagination. One should closely note the colonization of the New World in Jamestown, Virginia that occurred around 1607. Scholars have paid close attentions to the opening storm scene in The Tempest and how it may relate to events which had occurred in real life. British efforts to colonize the New Worlds established nine pilgrim ships to head off to Jamestown, Virgina. The ships disappeared and all colonial offices were presumed dead. Miraculously the officers were alive, as they had wrecked off the coast of Bermuda. This event, along with the colonization of North America played a significant role on Shakespeare's creation of The Tempest. 2

Prospero is an usurped Duke of Milan, hence a European, who has escaped with his daughter and landed on a tropical, Mediterranean island. The play begins with his creation of a storm, giving him the ability to initiate and control problems. Upon arrival to the new island, Prospero encounters the one inhabitant, the native Caliban. He has taken charge of this remote island and has succeeded in doing so by employing his special powers or magic, and by forcibly employing the help of the indigenous inhabitants via threats of painful force or by the use of his magic. Prospero takes power from Caliban. Prospero describes Caliban as "a poisonous slave got by the devil himself" who serves as his oppressed slave.3 Later we see Caliban plotting to recover what Prospero has taken. Thus Prospero represents the European authority that exerts control over the strange non-European inhabitants.

Upon arrival, Prospero assumes the island as his dukedom and crowns himself master. In doing so, he frees Ariel from her torment and colonizes Caliban the "freckled whelp, hag-born--not honoured with/ A human shape" who now serves as his slave.4 Caliban is introduced to the audience as a savage. He is neither man nor animal and born of a witch. He is considered to be part of nature, as Indians often are thought to be even today, and his name itself seems to be a thinly disguised play on the word cannibal.5 The moment Prospero sees the native "monster" he feels inferior to him and feels as though he must colonize him. The process of colonization is a dependent one. Requiring at least two members, where one is the colonized and the other the colonizer. The "real colonizer is almost of necessity a man of strong character; a creator rather than an accepter of relationships".6 On the other hand, the colonized, "finds the relationship ready-made; he takes it up, adapts himself to it, and very often exploits it".7 In terms of colonization, Shakespeare's theme becomes that of the renunciation of power and Prospero's desire for domination. When Caliban and Prospero first meet there is an initial hospitable exchange or swap of knowledge. Prospero teaches Caliban how to speak and in return Caliban reveals the islands natural resources. But the relationship turns sour when Caliban attempts to force himself on Miranda. He describes Caliban accordingly:

A devil, a born devil, on whose nature

Nurture can never stick; on whom my pains,

Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost;

And as with age his body uglier grows,

So his mind cankers.8

To Prospero, Caliban's physical deformity mirrors his moral limitations. Caliban does not exhibit restraint. Thus Prospero feels he is morally entitled to exert his authority over Caliban. Caliban understands and resents the fact that his home has been seized and his freedom stolen, "This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother, Which thou tak'st from me."9 Caliban voices his resentment toward Prospero's colonization. At the same time that they must protect themselves from his violent tendencies, they must also ensure Caliban's continued service in order to survive on the island.

Caliban's attempted rape teaches Prospero that natural instinct must be controlled, which becomes the basis for colonial racism. It is easy to see Caliban as an allegory that furthers the theme of European colonialism. We can assume Pospero's perception of the uncivilized native, the half human, unrestrained beast. The Europeans were unable to view the New World and its natives as cultured human beings. Colonization at its core has two major characteristics. As Brown points out, these characteristics are that of 'masterlessness' and 'savagism'. Masterlessness, "analyses wandering or unfixed and unsupervised elements located in the internal margins of civil society", masterlessness revels the mastered who are submissive, and supervised, and the masterful who are powerful and observing. Savagism "probes and categorizes alien cultures on the external margins of expanding civil power." Further, "Savagism reveals the necessity of psychic and institutional order and direction in the civil regime."10

Together, these characteristics define the relationship between the colonized and the colonizer. Stephano, Alonso's drunken butler and Trinculo, Alonso's jester represent the 'masterless' characters. Caliban represents the 'savage'. Using the above definition, Caliban is the foreign culture standing in the way of Prospero's expanding power. In order for Prospero's regime to prosper he must colonize Caliban and overpower him.

What are we to make of Ariel with its magical powers and its androgynous, non-human form. Shakespeare does not refer to the gender of Ariel. All of Ariel's characteristics contribute